This invention relates to a novel electronic adapter for a conventional mechanical voting machine to allow electronic readout of the mechanically counted vote to conventional computer stations. Thus, the vote can be electronically monitored and analyzed while maintaining the mechanically indicated vote count and all desirable features of the mechanical voting machine.
There are many well-known systems which have been and are presently in use for the casting of votes of an electing body. One such device is the well-known automatic mechanical voting machine which contains an array of mechanically operated levers which each correspond to a given candidate or question and which are selectively operated by the voter in order to record his vote. All mechanical machines for a given election will have identical arrays of levers. The actuation of these levers is suitably interlocked, typically, so that only one vote can be cast for a particular office, and so that the voter can change his vote before recording his entire vote. Recording the vote is caused by actuating a curtain handle which opens a security curtain which normally screens the voter while he is in the voting booth. The vote is recorded in mechanical counters respectively associated with each of the spindles on the machine when the vote recording handle is operated.
Another type of voting system, which is less widely used than the mechanical machine, but which lends itself to electronic data processing techniques uses a data processing card which is punched at certain end positions by a voter to cast a ballot. The major advantage of this system over the mechanical voting machine is that the punched cards can be processed with conventional data processing equipment so that election results can be quickly obtained and tabulated following the closing of the poles.
A serious disadvantage of the card equipment is that there is no way to indicate to the voter that an improper vote has been cast, as by punching two votes for two different individuals for a single office. This could be done inadvertently and would invalidate the voter's ballot. A further disadvantage with the card system is that it is difficult to change a vote since a new card must be obtained by the voter and repunched in place of his original card. A final serious disadvantage of the card system is the lack in security in that a mechanical count is not available in the polls and the cards can be lost in transit to data processing equipment, whereby the entire vote of a locality can be lost or tampered with, with no recourse available to a source which could confirm the computer readout of the election results.